learntoplayguitar.eu

Oasis a really interesting rock band. Easy to identify their sound with the opening and a good part of the song to the tune Wonderwall. This British rock band formed a little before 1991 in Manchester with The Rain being their original name. The members of the band were Paul Mcguigan on bass, Tony McCarroll on drums, Liam Gallagher who mainly sang and played a little tambourine, and Paul Arthurs, playing the guitar. Before long, Liam’s older brother, Noel Gallagher, who was a very solid songwriter, had written some great songs. Maybe because he was the older brother, I don’t know, Noel wasn’t interested in what was going on with his little brother’s band. However, as time went by, he wants to get together with the band. He wants them to play the songs he’s written. He told them this and also informed them that he wanted to be the bands only songwriter.

They decided to take him on up on the proposal because they really needed some material and what they were going up with was really sub standard. Because is a great songwriter, once he joined up with the band, the great tunes turned them into a hit machine. They managed to put out 8 number one singles in the UK along with 7 number one albums. They won all kinds of awards, MTV, Q awards, and Europe music awards. In 2007 they produced one of the best albums of the past 30 years.

Now this was voted on by BBC radio tune listeners and they were nominated for some Grammies. So, as of last year, 2009, they have sold over 30 million records. Listed in the Guinness book of world records by the way for the longest 10 UK chart run by a group. And that was because they had 22 in a row top 10 hits. That is on heard. Even the Beatles didn’t have that many, way back. Now, they of course compared themselves to the Beatles thinking that they were the next Beatles. It is always interesting when a band comes along that talks about or very rarely does a band comes along and proclaim themselves the next Beatles. But sometimes, the critics and the record labels, Sony, BMG, all those folks think their latest hottest band is going to be the next Beatles. It is not really going to happen folks. There was a time in history that allowed the Beatles to become the Beatles. So, the members of the band were assigned to a label called Creation Records. And that is when they put out some of their first stuff.

Definitely Maybe. Now this was a little bit later after their earlier hits. But the main thing I want to talk about was song Wonderwall because it is really a take off in the first place of the Beatles. George Harrisson was the first Beatle to put on an album that i was a solo album. That was because a soundtrack to a movie called Wonderwall. Well, Wonderwall Music and the album was called Wonderwall Music and it was mostly ambient kind of stuff that was definitely not ready for the Beatles label. Although, it did it did come out on Apple. I believe because Capitol, EMI wanted nothing to do with it, because they knew it would never sell. Anyway, so George put out a couple of albums early. Wonderwall and then electronic sounds and John was putting out some of his experimental albums at the same time. There were two albums called Unfinished Music, Life of the Lions was one and Two Virgins was the other. Very controversial because the album cover that included none of clothes in either of them. So, and then he and Yoko put out another experimental albums after that called The Wedding Album. So, John put out some pretty sketchy albums in the late sixties.

At least George had more musical content. John were a little bit more like revolutionized and his other experimental song What’s the New Mary Jane that didn’t show up, that wasn’t…They never showed up on official release. They finally put up an edited version, one of the edited versions on it on Beatles Anthology three ad lib. So, the song Wonderwall, getting back to Oasis, as I’m wandering off here in a daze. Whoops! Just a minute, my notes are disappearing. The band of course made appearances on MTV unplugged. They played on World Festival Hall but they also always have bickering between the brothers and it seems like now the plug has been pulled finally. And for every…As far as everybody else is concern, they are done. But Noel Gallagher is off and doing his own thing, writing his own stuff, playing…He spent some time playing with Zac Starkey, Ringo’s son. So another Beatles connection between Oasis and a member of the Beatles. So, the album, by the way, that Wonderwall was from came out in 1995. It is called “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?”. It just rode, rode the charts for a while, because it had a lot of singles: “Some Might Say, ” “Roll With It, ” of course, “Wonderwall, ” “Don’t Look Back in Anger.” Those were all big. They were, again, much bigger in the UK, in Britain, than they were in the United States. But, they did have two big hits in the US. Aside from “Wonderwall, ” “Champagne Supernova” was another one that became a radio staple for a while, and even a song I taught to a lot of people in the middle and late 1990s, when music was kind of sketchy and had entered a sort of void period at that point, anyway. There were some interesting complaints, or at least maybe critical comments about especially a lot of the stuff from “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?”. Writer John Harris, in his article called “Britpop!: Cool Britannia and the Spectacular Demise of English Rock, ” compares a lot of the songs and themes from that album directly to other songs.

He cites Gary Glitter’s “Hello, Hello, I’m Back Again” as a song that has stuff clearly stolen from it. John Lennon’s “Imagine”… the song “Don’t Look Back in Anger” is a lot like “Imagine.” “You and Me, ” “She’s Electric, ” and the R.E.M song, “The One I Love.” “Morning Glory” is a lot like that. The songs really had such close resemblance to other existing pop songs, or older existing pop songs, that it really is hard to hand these guys a lot of credit for being very original.

But, that’s what happens in this style of Brit pop. Actually, there was a lot of this in general just going on in the music industry, with not a lot of innovative, creative ideas. But, again, Oasis said they were better than The Beatles. Much like Michael Stipe. I was having a conversation the other day with one of my students, and we were talking about people. Self promoters. At one point in an interview, I believe, Michael Stipe of R.E.M. We were talking about some great R.E.M. songs, “Losing My Religion, ” and “Stand.” Anyway. But, at one point Michael Stipe referred to Beatles stuff as “elevator music.” It’s hard to believe anybody, any real musician, could even entertain that thought, let alone make the statement. I know the interviewer, at the end, did say had it not been for that elevator music, the makers of that elevator music, Michael Stipe would have been taking the stairs his whole life. That’s what happens when people try to compare themselves to the masters. It’s a bit dicey. The last thing I want to go through is some of the other songs that were on “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?” It opened up with “Hello.” Even Gary Glitter got credit for that one, because it was definitely taken. It was almost a cover of his song.”Roll With It” was the next song, and then of course, “Wonderwall, ” then, “Don’t Look Back in Anger.” Again, this sounded so much like “Imagine.”

There you go; I just had to get Imagine back in my head. They also did Hey Now! And one called Untitled. It’s amazingly clever and creative to name a song Untitled. I mean, really, this is one of my all time favorite titles, I myself have dozens of songs by that name. “Some Might Say” was followed by “She’s Electric”, then “Morning Glory” and ending with a few more tunes, then one more “Untitled”. You know something, they gave these untitled songs subtitles. This one was called “The Swamp Song.” The other one was called “The Swamp Song.” Part 1, part 2. Or, “Excerpt 1″ and “Excerpt 2.” And, then it ended with “Champagne Supernova.” I must note that these two tracks, the Swamp tracks, were officially “Untitled, ” but it’s mainly because there were a few blank spots in the tapes, particularly on the ones that were produced in Mexico. There was a bonus track on the vinyl edition. Vinyl had kind of died about 10 years before, but it was still hanging around a little bit. There was an extra song on there, “Bonehead’s Bank Holiday.” If you’re ever looking for “Bonehead’s Bank Holiday” by Oasis, and you know it’s from the “Morning Glory” period, you’ve got to find it on the vinyl.

That is my last few thoughts on these guys. If you’re really interested in Oasis, you should definitely check out some of their other interesting albums. Most of the Oasis songs are a lot of fun to play. If you are able to play about half a dozen Beatles songs, you can play every single Oasis song, because they’re simpler.

I enjoy learning about different rock bands and guitar. For acoustic guitar lessons or the Oasis Wonderwall Guitar Lesson visit TotallyGuitars.com